When I started at Penn state in September of 1967, I decided to schedule my first class of the day during the first period which started at 8:00 AM.

Why not?

I was accustomed to getting up early. My summer job had had a starting time of 7:00 AM so I was used to getting up at around 5:30 or 6:00. An 8:00 AM starting time meant that I could sleep in until about 6:30, and the cafeteria opened at 7:00 for breakfast, then I’d be on my way to Rec Hall, which was way on the other end of campus, by about 7:30. My first class was gym. I hated gym, so I figured I’d schedule it first thing in the morning to get it over with. I was only taking it because it was required for some reason or other.

What I hadn’t counted on was the East Halls parking lot.

I’d have to walk across that parking lot every morning to get to the main campus paths and roadways.

It wasn’t too bad at first, in September, but come October when the winds began to whip up and then November, and I was chilled to the bone first thing in the morning. I vowed never again to take a first period class, and I never did.

Of course, even those November winds didn’t hold a candle to what was in store when Winter Term rolled around come January.

Then even the second period class, which started at 9:35, wasn’t late enough in the morning to have warmed up significantly.

But I noticed something unexpected. I acclimated pretty quickly to the cold weather. The first day of sub-freezing weather (and we’re talking 20° F or more below the the freezing point), and I’d be freezing, because we simply didn’t have that kind of weather in Richland, PA. But after a day or two, I got used to it. When you’re young, you adapt.

I remember running into our dorm’s RA downtown at McClanahan’s one day and he offered me a ride back to the dorms. I tried to refuse because I had gotten used to the cold weather and I wanted to remain acclimated to it, and he wouldn’t be around to drive me to classes. I told him that I was getting used to the cold, but he insisted, saying something like “When it gets this cold…” And I was caught in one of those binds where I realized he thought it would be rude of me to refuse.

By the way, our RA was named Bob Taylor. When my parents and I met him on the day they drove me to school to drop me off, after he had introduced himself and left the room, my mother immediately realized that “Bob” Taylor meant that his name was Robert Taylor; I was a bit slower on the uptake. So I can say that I saw Robert Taylor pretty much the way Lucy and Ethel saw Robert Taylor.

The reason I bring this up is that we are experiencing significant sub-freezing temperatures now and will do so for the next few days at least.

I thought my days of acclimating to those temperatures was long since past, but after being out in them to clear off the snow the other day, I realized I was once again getting used to them.

So I may not be house bound for the next few days after all.

As long as it doesn’t get too windy. Never did get used to the wind.

Meanwhile, G. Elliott Morris has some numbers that might be of interest:

The ICE shootings are a tipping point

First, consider the trajectory in Donald Trump’s overall approval rating. His net rating — the difference between the percent of Americans who approve of his presidency and the percent who disapprove — is -17.5 in the FiftyPlusOne.news aggregate, a record low for his second term. But the more telling story is what’s happening on immigration specifically. And his approval percentage also hit a new low this week, at 39.2% of all adults.

Read the whole thing.

Michael Wolff thinks he sees the end in sight: 

According to Wolff, the daily work of governing—incremental wins, trade-offs, and detail—bores Trump, draining his energy at a moment when political discipline matters most.

That disengagement has become increasingly visible on the world stage. After heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos expecting to be treated as an untouchable strongman, Trump instead encountered coordinated resistance from allies who, Wolff argued, are no longer content to maneuver quietly around him.

“Trump’s virtue to voters is that no matter what happened, he looked strong,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.

“Now he cannot take Greenland, he cannot take Canada, he cannot do any of the things that he has huffed and puffed and said he will do.”

Wolff said the same pattern is playing out at home, where the administration has struggled to contain the fallout in Minneapolis following two fatal encounters involving federal immigration officers this month, further inflaming protests and political backlash.

“This has now become a very, very complicated situation,” Wolff said.

For Trump, Minneapolis represents the kind of crisis he finds hardest to manage: one that can’t be bullied into submission or drowned out by spectacle.

“He cannot threaten his way out of it,” Wolff said.

Speaking of the November elections, Wolff concluded: “Conceivably one of the most important campaigns ever waged. This is potentially, in November, the end of Donald Trump.”

All I can add is that I hope Trump has a long life, because I still want to see him locked up in prison for a very long time for all of the misery he has caused other people. And I don’t even believe in prisons for the most part.